American Jews working for a secular America made a fatal mistake

The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Since World War II, most American Jews have believed that the more secular American society is, the more secure their status. This has been, as I have argued all my life, a colossal mistake. In fact, it can turn out to be a fatal mistake. With unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism erupting, American Jews are living out the famous warning: “Be careful what you wish for; you can only get it.”

The main reason American Jews have lived in the most Jew-friendly, even Jewish-friendly country in history is that the majority of Americans have been Christians. But here we must make a key distinction. American Christians have not been just Christians, as Europe was, but Judeo-Christians. Almost all of the American founders were traditional Christians (that is, believers in the Christian Trinity) or believers in God but not in the Christian Trinity. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin fall into the latter category. But almost to a man the founders were Judeophiles. In fact, Jefferson and Franklin wanted the seal of the new United States to represent the Jews leaving Egypt.

In an 1808 letter, John Adams wrote of the Jews: “They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their Empire were nothing more than decoration compared to the Jews. They have given religion to three-fourths of the globe, and have influenced the affairs of mankind more, and more happily, than any other nation, ancient or modern.

“I will insist that the Hebrews have (contributed) more to civilizing men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal destiny, I should still believe that destiny had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilize the nations…

Not only the founders appreciated the contribution of the Jews to the formation of the great concepts of Western civilization.

Mark Twain, who, although not a religious man, was raised in a Protestant religious home, wrote in 1899, in an essay in Harper’s magazine, “Concerning the Jews:”

“The Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian rose filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded into dreams and died; Greek and Roman followed; and he made a great noise, and they are gone; other people have arisen and held their torch high for a time, but it has burned out, and now they sit in the twilight, or are gone. The Jew saw them all, overcame them all, and is now what he always was, without decay, without the infirmities of age, without weakening of his parts, without slackening of his energies, without dimming of the his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass away, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

The only inscription on the Liberty Bell is from the Hebrew Bible, specifically from the Book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah: “Proclaim liberty throughout the earth to all its inhabitants.”

Until the 1800s, one could not graduate from Harvard University without knowing Hebrew. The insignia of Yale University is in Hebrew, representing the breastplate of the Jewish high priest.

In a famous study published in the American Political Science Review, Donald Lutz, professor of political science at the University of Houston, studied the political literature of the American foundation. He found that the Bible was cited more frequently than any other work or any other author. The Bible accounted for about a third of the founder’s citations. The most cited work was Deuteronomy, the fifth of the five books of the Torah.

The late great Catholic theologian Michael Novak wrote that the roots of the doctrine that “all men are created equal are found in Judaism, carried around the world by Christians.”

As American society and individual Americans become less religious, that is, less Christian, Jews become less significant.

Yet many, perhaps most, American Jews have bought into—and promulgated—the idea that Jewish security in America lies in secularizing, that is, de-Christianizing America.

As stated above, I have warned all my life about this dangerous nonsense. As I told John Anderson, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, on his podcast: “I say this as a Jew… I’m not romanticizing Christianity when I say its death is the death of the West. I’m rooting for the survival of Christianity as much as you, the Christian, are.”

Look around, fellow Jews. Are you happy with the results of the secularization of America? Do you feel more confident? Or less?

I ask you: Isn’t it obvious that when more Americans attended church every Sunday, the Jews of America were much safer?

Dennis Prager is a national radio talk show host and columnist. His commentary on Deuteronomy, the third volume of “The Rational Bible,” his five-volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, was published in October 2022. He is the co-founder of Prager University and is you can contact dennisprager. .how.

Dennis Prager, one of America’s most respected radio talk hosts, has been broadcasting in Los Angeles since 1982. The popular Dennis Prager Show was distributed nationally in 1999 and airs live, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (Pacific Time), 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. (East) from its home station, KRLA.

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